As I was typing, however, I came across two things that are rather interesting -- older Irish often counted in groups of twenty: that is, 30 is 'ten and twenty' and 59 is 'nine-and-two-twenties', which seems like a rather bizarre way to count in a base-ten system. I don't think that this is at all a common modern usage (and considering the age of the book, things have changed dramatically).
The other odd statement I found in another book (This time a compilation of 'A Grammar for the Irish Language' by Mason, and dating to 1842) is this:
"There is an idiom in very common use, which is to call 7 "great six"—ex. móir sheisíur, 7.Huh? I can't think of any reason that this would be a "common idiom", even in 1842. What possible reason could you have for calling a seven a "big 6"? There must be some sort of anectdotal story about it somewhere, but I can't find a reference. I could justify counting in twenties, even, but this? Seven is just "big six"?
Anyone have any further info?
2 comments:
Remember the phrase: "four-score and seven years ago"? A "score" was twenty. I think before calculators, there were all sorts of counting-by-x strategies to make head-math easier.
Maybe it's something similar to a "baker's dozen".
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